Three Questions With Tony Sculimbrene from Everyday Commentary

If you want to know anything and everything about every day carry gear then Tony at Everyday Commentary is your guy. The depth and breadth of Tony’s knowledge are unparalleled, and his reviews are well researched and thorough. My thanks to Tony for answering Three Questions.

1. What role do analog tools such as pens, pencils, and paper play in your day to day life?

As a trial lawyer and public defender, I am constantly taking notes. Pen and paper do things, for me, that digital could never do. After 10 years of trials, probably hundreds at this point, I have a pretty efficient note taking system for legal notes. It basically lets me run a verbatim transcript AND do analysis for cross examination at the same time. I could never, ever do that with a computer and not just because the loud typing would drive everyone crazy. The speed and mutability of the written note, at least in my business, still vastly outpaces the typed word (even if you can type fast, its still not verbatim).

The other reason why pen and paper are indispensible for me is because they have a zero fail rate.  When you are taking notes that could be the difference between freedom and prison, you can’t wait for a computer to boot up or worry about a software issue. With a pad of paper and a few pens (tucked into a NockCo Lookout ;) I don’t have to worry about a technical glitch. I can do the tech presentation thing, but I found that handwritten notes are better aids for talking with people about very complex idea. The Powerpoint becomes a crutch while notes are just little guideposts. Its no exaggeration to say that I take 20 pages of handwritten notes on an average day and at trial that number goes way up. I could not do without pen and paper. For me it is probably iPhone (with Lexis on it), then pen and paper as far as tools for work.  

2. What are your favorite products you are currently using?

My son and I have had a good time making swords and Shredder claws on my band saw (a Grizzly G0555). Here is some of the handiwork:

I also really like my Steve Karroll SES custom folder:

But I think the thing I use the most right now is probably my Prometheus Alpha pen (seen here with the Prometheus Beta QR and the Dragonfly II in Nishijin Glass Fiber handles):

3. What post are you the most proud of on your blog?

I am really stunned at how smart my readers are so pretty much every review I learn something new. For example, on the review of the Thrunite T10T I learned about a new start up flashlight company that makes the L3 Illumination L10C. As it turns out that light is much better than the more expensive T10T and I would have never found it, but for super smart readers. 

That said, the thing I am most proud of is the blog’s annual Wounded Warriors Project giveaway. It is a really great cause, we raise quite a bit of money, and I have an outlet for review samples. I keep exactly zero review samples (if I like something, I will buy it from the blog at retail), but I have quite a few coming in and they accumulate. It would be tremendously tempting to keep, sell or trade them, but by giving them away it helps keep the blog honest. So the equation is pretty elegant — help returning vets, keep the blog honest, and give cool stuff to awesome readers. I have run the giveaway three years in a row and it is pretty easy to enter and the prices are quite nice. Read the rules and enter here.

Three Questions With Jenny From The Finer Point

Jenny has breathed a bit of fresh air into the stationery blogging scene with The Finer Point. I love her style, and her perspective has me nodding along with her as I read her posts. My thanks to Jenny for answering Three Questions.

1. What role do analog tools such as pens, pencils, and paper play in your day to day life?

A huge part. I am rarely without some form of analogue tool. You never know when you will need to write something down and I forget things very easily so pen and paper is essential. I have tried to use note taking apps on my phone in the past but to be honest it wasn't easy or convenient enough. Pen and paper is much easier to scrawl something down fast or quickly sketch something out which isn't so easy on a phone or tablet. Currently I am using 5 different notebooks in varying sizes that all have a specific purpose and get used every day. I think I would be lost without having a pen and notebook with me. 

2. What are your favorite products you are currently using?

The Field Notes Unexposed notebook is a new favourite. I really really like this edition. I am using the orange notebook for my day to day notes. My Lamy Safari with Pilot Iroshizuku Asa-Gao ink is another favourite. Then there is my Render K that I keep with me all the time.

3. What post are you the most proud of on your blog?

My first review which was the Shelterwood Field Notes. Deciding to start the blog took some time and getting the first review up was a big deal. It seemed to go down well and I was genuinely surprised about how much traffic came through to the site. (A big part of that was down to the inclusion in your ink links - so thank you). After that first review I knew I was going to enjoy blogging about pens, paper and pencils!

Three Questions With Lindsay Nelson

The name Hobonichi has infiltrated the stationery lexicon in the US over the last couple of years, much of that thanks to Lindsay Nelson. Lindsay works for Hobonichi, providing the Japanese to English translations that have allowed the brand to expand outside of its homeland. My thanks to Lindsay for answering Three Questions.

1. What role do analog tools such as pens, pencils, and paper play in your day to day life?

I'm always blindly experimenting with my digital-analog balance. After reading about Getting Things Done, for example, I could tell it'd work well for me--but I had no clue whether I should use my iPhone or my paper planner. I'm fascinated by the idea of mastering a harmony between smart-phones and paper planners, so I'm still in the thick of trial-and-error to find it. Among other things, written to-do lists have totally trumped putting it in my phone; it's just not "real" enough when I type it in. My general rule is to outline long-term projects in Omnifocus and write each new daily agenda by hand in my daily planner. Budgets are also slipping through my fingers all the time, so I've been entertaining the thought of starting an old-fashioned ledger, for the same reason it feels more real spending cash than it does a credit card.

2. What are your favorite products you are currently using?

I'm going into my seventh year using the Hobonichi Techo, and I feel a real affinity with the product because it clicked from day one, although I've never, ever been a journaling person. I needed a planner for work, but I lived in Japan at the time, with a job that amounted to brainstorming ideas for projects I'd then have to manage myself. Muji notebooks are great, but I couldn't crawl out from creative slumps when I had a blank piece of paper plopped in front of me. Lined planners didn't feel free enough. The Hobonichi Techo gave me wide-open graph paper I could navigate around, but it was encircled it with a subtle structure that disappeared when I didn't need it.

Shigesato Itoi, who created the planner, said my favorite description of it--the page is a tatami room, and you can pick each area where you want to lay your futon, have your tea, watch TV, have friends over... I couldn't ever keep a diary because it was a chore to write out my day, but now, writing things out isn't a chore anymore. I experiment with pens, glue stuff in, jot down stream-of-consciousness notes, have friends write me silly messages, stuff like that. Paper and pens are fun for me again, and having a long row of old planners line my bookshelf is so neat, because I know these inane books will be precious fifty years from now. Gosh, I didn't mean for that to sound like an ad--I've just been using it since way before I began working with Hobonichi. 

My favorite black ink pens are the Sakura Pigma Micron sets because I've never had them smudge or bleed through paper, and they're just so handsome I could swoon. For colored pens, I love the Pentel Slicci, because they're sturdy, come in so many pretty colors, and most importantly, come in 0.4 size! That's my go-to size, because 0.1 or 0.2 is only comfortable when I'm writing in Japanese with its intricate characters, and 0.7 only works for writing in simpler English letters. So for someone who often writes in both languages, it's the perfect fit!

3. What creation or design of yours are you most proud of?

It's still a work in progress, but I'm most proud of the website I designed and created with the help of my husband before I began working for Hobonichi. It's a labor of love, but I haven't had any time to update it because I've been so busy with actual work. I'm actually hoping to use this site to track my progress with the digital-and-analog balancing experiments! (I'm also a big fat sucker for skeuomorphism.)